Where Rev could be going...

[Bernard Devlin]

Richard,

thank you again for re-iterating those arguments.  As I'm ambivalent  
about the whole browser thing, I've just been playing devil's  
advocate.  As far as I can see, I won't ever bring this up again.   
I'll leave it up to others if they want to further articulate the  
case for a browser plug-in.

Most people I know have no idea about how to even bookmark a website  
within their browser, or what a cookie is... the idea of them being  
able to download and install an application is fairly unimaginable.    
Even if they could install an application, I think as a rule of thumb  
I would advise them against it unless I could personally verify what  
it was they were downloading (I mean 'verify' as a friend, not as the  
developer of the application they were downloading).  I've seen some  
friends whose computers were probably parts of the same botnets  
responsible for the spam we were talking about in another thread.   
These friends had so lost control of their machines, that they could  
not use them for more than a minute or two before IE would open  
itself up and take them to some unsalubrious site. These people  
weren't complete novices when it comes to IT: one of them had studied  
programming in C++ for some months before giving it up; the other was  
an IT trainer.  If those people are unable to guard their PCs against  
malware, I wouldn't want the rest of the people I know installing  
anything...

Bernard